Police report 1500 children assaulted in NSW schools in 2020, Penrith, Blacktown top the state

A shocking number of children have been assaulted at NSW Schools, as new data reveals the hot spots. See if your suburb is on the list.

The number of children being assaulted at NSW Schools was higher in the 12 months to March this year — despite Covid lockdowns forcing weeks of remote learning — than they were in the previous year.

NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research data revealed a total of 1565 children were reported as being assaulted in schools across the state in 2020, while 1542 incidents of assaults were report in 2019.

Penrith has the highest number of reported assaults on children across the state with 110 cases in the last year, followed by Blacktown with 101 reported incidents.

The Central Coast comes third on this list with 81 cases, followed by Canterbury-Bankstown with 53 and Liverpool with 51.

Campbelltown recorded 48 incidents of assault, followed by Fairfield with 39, Newcastle and Dubbo with 36 each and Maitland with 34 reported incidents of assaults on children.

There were more than 100 assaults of children on school grounds in Penrith and Blacktown.

Shadow Education and Deputy Opposition leader, Prue Car, described the assaults as a classroom “crisis”.

“We are still seeing high numbers of serious assaults in schools, but the NSW Government refuses to admit there is a problem,” she said.

“Schools should be safe for students and staff alike.

“The government need to admit their approach has failed and fix this crisis.”

NSW Shadow Minister for Education Prue Car. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

A NSW Education spokeswoman said schools were a “safe places for students”.

“Violence, bullying and anti-social behaviour are not tolerated at any NSW public school,” the spokeswoman said.

“Any student involved in violence, bullying and/or who engages in criminal behaviour at school is subject to the department’s discipline policy and their parents or carers are notified.

“BOCSAR data shows that more than 84 per cent of reports of assault against children aged under 18 years in NSW occurs off school premises.”

The spokeswoman said the data indicated that the number of juvenile victims of assault in NSW reported to or detected by police occurring on school premises remained the same over the two years to March 2021.

More than 1500 kids have been assaulted at NSW schools in the past year.

All NSW public schools implemented remote learning from March 24 last year to April 9 following the outbreak of Covid-19, however remained open during this period for students who could not learn from home.

Students returned to face-to-face learning for at least one day a week from week 3 of term 2 on May 11.

On May 19, schools returned to face-to-face learning due to reduced community transmission of COVID-19.

The Education Department’s Incident Report and Support Hotline receives incident notifications directly from schools following assaults.